Lexi Cindric
As a child, my mom would always tell me that I had it lucky in the world as a “Lilly White Suburbanite Child.” I never knew what that meant, and honestly, I thought she was trying to tease me. Both my mother and father had told me growing up about their struggles living in low-income families in the heart of the city of Cleveland, but again I did not take them seriously and thought that was just a long-lost tale since I was growing up in the safety and comfort of the suburb of Mentor, Ohio. I had never felt unsafe walking at night, never saw anyone struggle, and had everything I needed.
It was not until coming to college that I started to take what I was told about the world seriously. In my second semester of my first year in college at the University of Cincinnati, I had first truly started learning about the housing and economic issues occurring around me. In my Honors Intermediate Composition class taught by Professor Brian Bailie, I learned what gentrification was, how badly the city of Cincinnati was being affected by unaffordable housing, and how economic others were being treated.
Let's start with talking about what I knew before we begin. Nothing. I knew that people experienced homelessness, but I was never around those individuals, and if I did run into someone who looked like they may be, I would run right back the other way. Going to college in the city of Cincinnati, I come across those experiencing homelessness everyday when I get off the freeway, drive to work, and go for a walk, and I am grateful that I have been exposed to a non-perfect world where people do struggle because I am now beginning to understand housing and economic issues being faced in the United States, but specifically in the city of Cincinnati.
I have heard many people say throughout my life that those experiencing homelessness need to just get a job, and they would be fine. However, that is simply just not the case. Getting a job is not going to solve the housing crisis, lack of public services, and unfair treatment of economic others.
That is why my goal is to show you how “just get a job” is not the solution to combating homelessness. To start, housing costs have skyrocketed to unattainable levels. As brought to my attention by the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition, for housing to be truly affordable, the cost should be less than or equal to thirty-percent of your income. Okay so thirty-percent of your income… What is the average cost to rent a 1-bedroom apartment in Cincinnati? According to RentCafe in November of 2023, that number lies around $1,300. So if I do the math, in order for a single-person to have housing that is affordable, they need to make at least $52,000 a year. Just to consider a minimum wage job, at $10.45 an hour, 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, a person would only be making $21,736 a year. I could dive into just how unaffordable housing is, but that is just the first piece of the puzzle.
Let’s go back to just getting a job. In order to apply for a job, typically you need to provide a place of residence, a drivers license or supplementary identification, and a social security card, and in order to get an identification card you need to provide proof of residence, a birth certificate, and a marriage license if married and your last name was changed. Think about a person who is experiencing homelessness, moving from place to place, not having many belongings, living a very public life- a couple pieces of paper are bound to be lost or destroyed, severely impacting their ability to get a job. To dip my toes into the issue of those experiencing homelessness not having ID’s, I could not find an exact percentage of those who are without, but I was able to find some of the results of not having one. According to a survey done by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, of those who did not have an ID, 51% were denied Supplemental Security Income benefits, 31% were denied Temporary Aid to Needy Families benefits, 53% were denied food stamps, 54% were denied access to shelters or housing services, and 45% were denied access to Medicaid or medical services. So not only does a lack of important documents affect the ability to get a job, it also impacts the ability to get care.
However, back to getting a job. Another issue that presents itself when those experiencing homelessness are trying to get back on their feet is having a “criminal record.” I am not talking about thievery, murder, or anything crazy, I am talking about charges that were unfairly put on them. As put simply by Forbes, the US manages to criminalize being homeless in many ways such as not allowing those experiencing homelessness to sleep/loiter in public, ask for money, urinate in public despite public restrooms closing at sunset, and all-in-all will charge a fine for any small act deemed improper. A National Homelessness Law Center report found a 92% increase in citywide bans on camping, a 50% increase in bans for sleeping in public, a 78% increase in bans for sitting and lying in public spaces, a 103% increase in loitering bans, and an increase by 213% for living in vehicles. Not only is the issue that people experiencing homelessness are being unfairly fined and arrested for just trying to live, they now have a criminal record that makes them unappealing to potential employers.
The final issue I want to talk about making it difficult for economic others to get jobs is that many people experiencing homelessness are mentally or physically disabled. As stated by the National Library of Medicine, around ⅓ of those experiencing homelessness have poor mental health, and almost ½ have any kind of disability making it difficult for them to work.
After research for my english class as well as research for this essay, I still do not know the full extent of the issue of homelessness, but I do know that the solution is not to “just get a job.”
Sources
Admin. Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition, 12 Jan. 2018, cincihomeless.org/.
Average Rent in Cincinnati & Rent Prices by Neighborhood - Rentcafe, www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/oh/cincinnati/. Accessed 20 Apr. 2024.
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Health Care for Homeless People. “Dynamics of Homelessness.” Homelessness, Health, and Human Needs., U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 Jan. 1988, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK218240/.
Justice, Vera Institute of. “Forbes EQ Brandvoice: How the U.S. Criminalizes Homelessness.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 12 Oct. 2022, www.forbes.com/sites/forbeseq/2022/01/01/how-the-us-criminalizes-homelessness/?sh=2ff89ee4869a.
Photo Identification Barriers Faced by Homeless Persons, homelesslaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Photo-ID-Barriers-Faced-by-Homeless-Persons-2004.pdf. Accessed 20 Apr. 2024.